The purpose of this article is to assess a self-heating testing method for the characterization of fatigue properties of single-track thickness additively manufactured specimens. It also evaluates the impact of the microstructure orientation with respect to the loading direction on the dissipative behavior and the initiation of microcracks. The 316L stainless steel specimens under scrutiny were manufactured by Directed Energy Deposition in two configurations: (i) fully printed specimens (2 orientations) and (ii) repaired specimens. The paper first presents a morphologic and crystallographic texture analysis and second, a series of self-heating tests under cyclic loading. The mi-crostructural analysis revealed elongated grains with their sizes, shapes and preferred orientations controlled by process parameters. The self-heating measurements under cyclic tensile loading proved that the dissipation estimation through infrared measurements can be performed on small scale, thin specimens. The self-heating curves could successfully be represented by the Munier model. Moreover, several links between the printing parameters and self-heating results could be established. For example, a smaller vertical increment between successively deposited layers leads to higher mean